Young forwards excite Dockers and Demons

Young key forwards Matt Taberner and Jesse Hogan showed enough to excite their respective fan bases in Fremantle’s 18-point NAB Challenge win over Melbourne at Fremantle Oval.

The Dockers won 0.9.7 (61) to 6.7 (43) in a contest where the hosts scored just one behind in the third quarter and the Demons one point in each of the second and fourth terms.

While both teams had midfielders who performed well, without question it was the performance of two key forwards that was most encouraging with each club desperate to find someone in attack to build their future around.

Ever since joining Melbourne as a 17-year-old, the raps on Hogan have been that he is someone who could dominate the forward-line.

He has yet to make his AFL debut after injury ruined his 2014 season but there was a glimpse of his potential on Thursday night.

The 20-year-old kicked a terrific goal from a free-kick, continually presented and created contests in attack.

With Chris Dawes doing the same, Ben Newton showing good signs in first appearance and the likes of Jeff Garlett and Jay Kennedy-Harris at their feet, coach Paul Roos has every reason to be excited by his forward line.

“What I liked about Jesse’s game was when he was prepared to stand under the high ball and bring the ball to ground,” Roos said.

“I thought Dawesy and Hoges, when they are prepared to do that, make a difference because they don’t get outmarked and bring the ball to ground which gives our lively smalls a chance.

“Ben Newton’s first half was really good and (Sam) Frost did some fantastic things. I thought for the new guys it was a real positive and (Aaron) vandenBerg came on and did really well late.”

Fremantle might still have captain Matthew Pavlich to focus their forward-line around in 2015, but the answer regarding his long-term replacement has not been obvious.

That is perhaps until Thursday night when left-footed 21-year-old Taberner booted three goals, led and marked strongly, and kicked well to show that he could very well be the man the Dockers need.

“I thought Taberner continued in the manner we expected him too, so he was a real positive. I thought what we’re trying to do with Pav, unload him with some workers around him helped a bit as well,” Lyon said.

“The forward line is a work in progress so you have to give them good ground level support but I think we have that with (Hayden) Ballantyne, (Michael) Walters, (Matt) de Boer, (Chris) Mayne and (Hayden) Crozier.”

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